Photo credit
danover P.H

Biography

Lady la Profeta (Lady the Prophet) is a Colombian-Canadian poet, emcee,  film and theatre creator. In 2014 she started her spoken word career in Windhoek, Namibia, where she participated in various well known shows and festivals. In 2016 she started slamming in Edmonton, Alberta / Treaty 6 Territory, Amiswachiwaskahegan with “Breath in Poetry''. Since then she's become the 2018 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion and member of the League of Canadian Poets. Lady la Profeta is the 2021 Individual National Slam Champion of Colombia and will be representing Colombia as a poet in Brazil in the poetry slam festival Abya Yala. She is the Director of UMAMI and founder of REMIX THE RITUAL, as well as the the co-creator and co-producer of “Whiteface”. Her preferred styles are storytelling and the play on words offered by the culture of Hip Hop, which has had major influence on the spoken word scene. 

Micro-interview

Did you read poetry when you were in high school? Is there a particular poem that you loved when you were a teenager?

English was not my first language but I did love creative writing. Many teachers were impressed by how I could express so much in a language that was not my native tongue. The poems of Fridah Kahlo were my favourite. I feel like her entire life is a poem. 

When did you first start writing poetry? And then when did you start thinking of yourself as a poet?

I started writing poetry in high school but at the time I did not consider it poetry. I considered it a way of expressing myself. In university, I came to know what spoken word was. Coming from a theatre background I started to think of my poems as monologues. After university, I moved to Namibia and started really diving into the world of spoken word poetry. I truly believe I was birthed as a poet in Namibia. 

What do you think a poet’s “job” is?

A poet's job is to tell the truth in the most responsible way possible.  Every poet is a prophet, like I say in one of my favourite poems. I believe "poets can predict the future, because we observe the past with profound detail" - Lady la Profeta. 

If you had to choose one poem to memorize from our anthology, which one would it be?

For me, it would be "Dear Diaspora Child", this poem resonates a lot with me. Although I was born in my motherland, leaving my birth land at 9 years old meant that there was a lot about my culture that I missed out on, did not know about, or fought really hard to remember. I think this poem speaks volumes to the experiences of many immigrant children and the nostalgia we feel when we wake up every day in a land that is not as completely familiar to our ancestors. 

Publications

Poem title(s)
My accent, Broken Records
Title
WATER
Publisher
GLASSWATERBUFFALO
Editors
Matthew Stepanic
Date
2017
Publication type
Anthology
Poem title(s)
Matriarcas
Title
La Lengua Protesta
Publisher
Verso Vivo
Editors
versovivo
Date
2022
Publication type
Anthology
Title
LA SANGRE LLAMA
Publisher
Publicaciones el silencio
Editors
Carolina Charry Quintero
Date
September 2023
Publication type
Book
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